CATA-LUX

Project description

Visible light photocatalysis and metal-free organocatalytic processes are powerful strategies of modern chemical research with extraordinary potential for the sustainable preparation of organic molecules. However, these environmentally respectful approaches have to date remained largely unrelated. In the CATA-LUX project, we have merged these fields of molecule activation to redefine their synthetic potential.

Light-driven processes considerably enrich the modern synthetic repertoire, offering a potent way to build complex organic frameworks. In contrast, it is difficult to develop asymmetric catalytic photoreactions that can create chiral molecules with a well-defined three-dimensional arrangement. By developing innovative methodologies to effectively address this issue, CATA-LUX successfully provided a novel reactivity framework for conceiving light-driven enantioselective organocatalytic processes.
Our major aim was to translate the effective tools governing the success of ground-state asymmetric organocatalysis into the realm of photochemical reactivity, exploiting the potential of key organocatalytic intermediates to directly participate in the photoexcitation of substrates. At the same time, the chiral organocatalyst ensured effective stereochemical control. This single catalyst system, where stereoinduction and photoactivation merge in a sole organocatalyst, served for developing novel enantioselective photoreactions, with no counterpart in the ground-state regime.

CATA-LUX was a very successful project. We could successfully identify visible-light-mediated strategies for asymmetric catalysis, which traditional methodologies have not been able to address, thus expanding the way chemists think about making chiral molecules sustainably.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 681840.